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Norman,
OK. – Fresh off a rookie campaign which qualified him for a Bassmaster Classic on his home lake, there was no reason to believe that Casey Ashley’s 2008 campaign would be any less successful. But judging from the fact that eight of his ten fellow second year pros did worse this year than last year, perhaps the concept of a sophomore slump is particularly applicable to bass pros, many of whom have not endured the mental and physical strain of fishing this many high level tournaments back-to-back-to-back earlier in their careers.
But despite his peers’ struggles, the South Carolina pro ended up in the same general range again this year, moving up from 32nd to 26th place in the Angler of the Year race.
That move stood in contrast to fellow 2007 rookie sensation Derek Remitz, who fell from a class-high 25th in 2007 to a still respectable 41st in 2008. The third member of their class who fished the Hartwell Classic, Matt Sphar, plummeted from 29th to 63rd. His Classic spot was taken by Brian Hudgins, who ascended 49 places to 29th overall, the largest jump among their peer group.
Ashley hasn’t done much preparation for the big show on the Red River in February – “I haven’t even thought about it,” he said – but getting there was all he could think about all year.
“When you get done with one, right then, that’s when you start thinking about making the next (Classic),” he said. “To have the first Classic in my home town, on a lake where I’d spent so much time, at the time 17th (place finish) was disappointing.”
But he claims that he never felt any pressure, and that’s what enabled him to start the year with a bang. “One thing I can do is block everything out as soon as I get on the water,” he said.
First Half Fun
Ashley’s 2008 season started right where he’d left off at the end of 2007. En route to six top fifties, three of which were top twelves, he managed to finish in the money in six of the first seven tournaments, the only exception being an aberrational 107th place disaster at Amistad.
He was perhaps most proud of his 16th and 28th place finishes at the Harris Chain and Kissimmee, respectively, since Florida had previously been tough on him. With that in mind, he committed to “practice real hard. I got up and was out there from daylight to dark.”
At the Harris Chain, he didn’t find his fish until the last two hours of practice, but then he located the mother lode of spawning fish. “I couldn’t see them,” he said, “but they were swollen real bad and their tails were red. They were all in one little canal where I couldn’t even turn the boat around but I could catch them dead sticking a Senko.”
The next week at Kissimmee he reverted to his Carolina roots and fished a Chatterbait in the hydrilla, and even though he said he struggled the first day, it was the type of bite where he was subsequently able to “get rich quick” and he escaped Florida not only with a “sigh of relief,” but also well up in the AOY standings.
The magic continued at the slugfest at Falcon, an event that Ashley described as a “stupidly sick tournament,” in which he bagged a limit that weighed well over 30 pounds on day three.
“With my co-angler we probably caught 200 fish over four pounds that day. It was absolutely sick.”
But after the 10th place finish at Falcon came the Amistad bomb.
“I don’t know what happened,” Ashley stated. “I had 19-14 or 19-15 the first day and was sitting pretty good, but the second day I fished the same places, the wind didn’t blow any harder, but I couldn’t give a million dollars for a decent fish.”
South Carolina Swing Crucial
After Amistad, Ashley went home to South Carolina to fish three tournaments, two Elites and an Open, on Clarks Hill, Santee Cooper and Lake Murray, respectively. He earned a check in all three of them, including a season’s-best 5th place finish at Clarks Hill. He finished 8th there in 2007.
“Coming to Clarks Hill, that’s where I caught my first fish on a Zebco 33 when I was four or five years old,” he said. “When I was 10 years old, I caught a 9 pound, 10 ounce bass there, which was my biggest fish until I started fishing the Elite Series. Any time of the year they want to come, I’ll be there.
He was particularly happy to earn the top twelve spot, the second of three on the year, one more than he had in 2007, although his rookie season featured a win at Smith Mountain Lake.
“Any time you can get that camera time, that’s huge, even if it’s just for five seconds,” he said. “For somebody to see your face on ESPN2 on Saturday morning, it doesn’t matter where you end up as long as you get there. That’s a career-builder and it builds your fan base.”
But after Murray, he had a streak of four consecutive tournaments where he finished between 71st and 80th. Each one hurt him in a different way and exposed some of his remaining weaknesses.
“Wheeler was just a tough tournament,” he said. “All you hear about is the Decatur Flats. I don’t like to fish around a lot of people, so I didn’t even practice there. I was just hard-headed and stubborn. I was real fortunate to finish 73rd.”
Kentucky Lake was even tougher. “That sucker bit me in the butt,” he said. “Those ledge fish are a whole different world. That Monday of practice was the first time I ever saw the lake, so I stuck with what I know and fished shallow. I was catching thirty a day on a frog. You would think you could catch two four pounders doing that, but I never did.” |
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Then at Old Hickory, he got on a good shallow bite, but the first day he “never ran far enough to get where the fish were biting good.” The second day he didn’t even get a rod out until he had run 50 miles up the river to new water, at which point he ran into the back of “a creek that looked good until the motor couldn’t run any more” and sacked five for over 10 pounds, but it was too little too late.
But Erie may have exposed him the most.
“I wish we never go back there,” he said. “I hate rough water and that deep smallmouth stuff just kills me. I can catch 50 a day there but they’re all two pounders.”
Despite that late-season swoon, he managed to close out the year on a very positive note with a 7th place finish at Oneida.
“Oneida just fits my style,” he said. “About mid-day I started seeing some fish cruising around the rocky flats. You’d see grass and then there’d be a white spot and that was rock. It was probably the most fun I had all year.”
It was particularly fun because it brought him into the Classic field. Going into the event his four consecutive non-money finishes had dropped him outside the cut.
“I don’t thrive on pressure,” he said. “I had never been in that situation. I just figured that if it works out, it works out. If you try to make things happen, that’s when it goes down the gutter.”
Extracurriculars
While Ashley took care of his career goals on the water, he also took some sizeable steps toward cementing his status as a coveted promoter.
Notably, he recorded his song “Fisherman” just three days before the Classic.
“I’ve always loved to sing,” he said. “I do it any time I get the chance, but I never dreamed that it would work out that way.” While he’s gotten significant publicity for his voice among fishing fans, he realizes that in order to take that aspect of his career to the next level, he’ll have to hook up with a record label.
One hookup that did pay off was his new relationship with Lucky Craft, a business partnership that seemed to come to him fairly easily.
“I spoke with (Lucky Craft President) Minoru (Segawa) at the Classic before blast-off,” Ashley said. “He asked me if I had a hard bait sponsor but the music was so loud I couldn’t hear most of what he said. Then, in Florida, at the second tournament, Doug Cox, their marketing guy approached me and we sealed the deal right there.”
His only regret about the deal is the amount of money he’d spent on the company’s lures prior to that date. “If I had only known,” he lamented. “I spent a small fortune in Lucky Craft before that. I have boxes full of it.” But on the whole, he felt that it was a flattering opportunity. “To be a young guy and realize that someone there believes in you, to be a part of that team, that was big.”
Looking Forward
Ashley admitted that he still stands at the edge of a financial precipice, and that each check he earns is critical to continuing onward.
“If you miss too many, it hurts,” he said. “The only reason that I’ve held on this year is because I won (at Smith Mountain) last year. Without the win, I would probably be broke, to tell you the truth.”
But the warm, fuzzy memories from Smith Mountain don’t transfer to next year’s April visit to the Virginia impoundment.
“I dread that one,” Ashley said. “It’s a tough lake with deep clear water and very pressured fish. I never in a million years dreamed I’d win there. Next year is going to be a sight fishing dog fight and with Rojas, Kelly Jordon and all those guys it’s hard to compete. We never sight fished where I grew up.”
But before that, he’ll head to the Red River for his second Classic, and while he said that he hasn’t given it much thought, he did admit that he had queried fellow South Carolinian about the river’s general characteristics. He’s been spending upwards of five days a week on the water, but is getting ready to hit the woods for deer hunting season and will return his attention to fishing closer to the cut off date.
But while a Classic crown would be big, he’s even more hopeful that there’s an Angler of the Year trophy in his future.
“I might retire if I won Angler of the Year,” he said. “That’s as good as it gets. The Classic is a chunk of change, but AOY, that’s what we’re out there for. It just has to be an overwhelming feeling.”
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